In print or online

A couple of weeks ago, The Washington Post decided to merge its online personality (washingtonpost.com) with it print personality by using the print Washington Post brand online. The company had decided a while back to separate it online content from the print content although it was mostly the same. Now, it is definitely trying to make it all one.

I think that in the next few month we are going to see changes in print and online newspapers as subscriptions go down and costs go up, as advertisers continue to dial down their presences. Eventually, newspapers will have to deal with the fact that they are giving away all of their content for free online. It begs the question of why someone should subscribe to the print edition. Of course, some people do not have online access or simply prefer to read printed matter. But those people are probably a distinct minority. Overall, most people that follow news are online and comfortable reading news online. The other question for newspapers is how can they make money from their online ventures? There is online advertising, but what kind of metrics are they giving their advertisers? With print, you have geographic based demographic information. But online, anyone can read the content on a site. What will this do to local advertisers?